The Americanisation of Britain’s elite basketball league has been welcomed by Yorkshire’s leading representatives as a well-timed move away from an English sporting culture that may have been holding it back.

The BBL is to scrap the two-legged aggregate format for its play-off competition - one that is commonly used in football - and replace it from next season with an NBA-style ‘best-of-three’ series to determine which two teams will contest the showpiece BBL Play-off Final at the O2 Arena in London next May.

The league is also re-introducing an All-Star game to be contested by the league’s best players in March, again a concept popular in the United States where basketball is one of the main sports.

Basketball has forever struggled for a foothold in Britain, though, and at times veered towards trying to attract fans by structuring the sport around the templates already in place in prominent English sports.

Aiming high: Action from Sunday's BBL Play-off final between London Lions (black shirts) and Leicester Riders. (Picture courtesy of British Basketball League)

This announcement by chief executive Aaron Radin comes 18 months after Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners bought a 45 per cent stake in the league and represents their most significant alteration to the structure and direction of the competition to date.

As well as as ‘best-of-three’ series in the play-off quarter-finals and semi-finals, and the All-Star game, the BBL is scrapping the BBL Cup and changing the date of the BBL Trophy, which will now be played from start to finish in the month of January, during a pause in the Championship season.

Yuri Matischen, Sheffield Sharks’ owner and founder, is also a BBL board member and has worked at the coalface of elite-tier basketball for more than three decades. He knows the battles his sport has waged to get attention, funding and support, which is why for him, these changes are a positive sign of a league ready for growth.

“I think we need to pay less deference to football and operate it like the sport of basketball should be operated,” said Matischen. “You don’t get aggregate scores in basketball, the play-offs are the big thing.

The men's and women's BBL play-off finals were watched by a crowd of 16,000 at the O2 Arena on Sunday (Picture courtesy of British Basketball League)

“As more and more people become aware of basketball culturally, you can leave the football terminology behind.”

On the make-up of the calendar, he added: “It’s neater, easier to understand and to articulate.

“We’re very pleased at the Sharks, and as clubs we’ve all approved these changes.”

The new format coincides with Sheffield Sharks moving into a new home at the Park Community Arena developed by Canon Medical Systems from next season, while the league’s visibility is also growing, with subscribers to its YouTube channel on the rise and a highest-ever attendance of 16,000 people - 500 shy of capacity - for Sunday’s BBL Play-off final in which London Lions defeated Leicester Riders.

London Lions won the men's BBL Play-off final at the O2 Arena in London (Picture courtesy of British Basketball League)

The ‘best-of-three’ play-off format will, though, present challenges to clubs, namely in how to sell tickets.

Sharks’ home quarter-final with the Riders two weeks ago was played to a half-full Ponds Forge, although in mitigation, they only had five days to sell tickets. If that is the case, then how do they get around potentially selling two home games in a ‘best-of-three’ series at short notice?

“That’s our challenge,” said Matischen. “Next season we’ll sell it as the play-off series and promote it right from the get-go: if you want to buy a play-off ticket, we’ll not know when or who, but you’ll have bought a ticket for the event, and we’ll promote it for longer and sooner.

“People don’t get that the play-offs are more important than the regular league fixtures, so we’ve got to address it and market it differently.”

BBL chief executive Radin said: “We wanted to ensure the format of the season was clearer for our clubs, partners and fans to follow, ensuring that all the thrilling action flowed throughout the season.

“The reintroduction of an All-Star game will be an amazing showcase of the sensational talent we have in the British Basketball League and adds another landmark moment into the basketball calendar. It’s been an incredible year for the league and we’re only going to continue to grow in the season’s ahead.”

The Women’s British Basketball League, in which the Sheffield Hatters play, will follow a very similar formats structure as the men’s league, with clubs facing off twice throughout the course of the championship season.

BBL to adopt NBA-style play-off series, to the delight of Sheffield Sharks